It was a good thing she wore her dancing attire for this occasion: a red, frilly double-layered long skirt and heeled dancing shoes. She unfastened the string of her fur cloak, folding the cloth neatly before placing it beside the musician named Jiscal. It was obvious the woman was quite timid by the way she carries herself.
Silarial smiled warmly at Jiscal, hoping it would ease her up a bit.
“Hello, I’m Silarial. And you are…?” The young musician lifted her flushed face and smiled shyly. With a soft voice, she replied,
“My name’s Jiscal… I play the lute here for entertainment. A-anyway, what would you like me to play? I mean, for your dance...”She whispered so only Jiscal would hear.
“Something fun and festive to celebrate my new job here at the Red Diamond.” The young dancer winked and Jiscal giggled softly. Well, at least the woman loosened up a bit now. She knows first hand how hard it was to perform when you’re stricken with stage fright.
With a nod, Silarial stood in front of the small but expectant crowd. She’s usually confident with dancing in front of many people, but today her heart ran wild in her chest. This performance is different from the others. There was a challenge behind her employer’s request, but it was a challenge Silarial’s eager to beat.
The musician plucked the strings of her lute to a slowly increasing tempo, the euphonious sounds filling the tavern. Silarial let the jolly tune flood her senses, and her feet started kicking, as if on their own, in lively and exuberant beats. Her eyes flushed the same color as her attire as she twirled around, her skirt billowing gracefully with her every turn.
The music sounded familiar to her ears, and she was very sure she’d danced to it before. It’s quite fortunate, really. There was no need for an impromptu dance anymore, and not much necessity for improvisation either. She’s still pretty much a novice, and creating perfect routines on the spot is rather challenging for the Vantha.
Smirking at her audience playfully, she jerked her head before bending her body sideways as far and as swift as she could. The step looked easy to execute to the untrained eye, but it took a lot of effort to push her body to such an angle, especially because of her current acrobatic skills, or lack thereof. It was worth it though; the motion swept her long black hair in a small arc, her tresses shimmering with a beautiful violet sheen in the light. Silarial then half-dashed, building momentum before grabbing her skirt in one hand and flipping it to the back of her head as she jumped, one feet lifted high behind her, the other poised to receive her full weight at landing. The dancer managed a quick glance at her audience, hoping they were pleased with her little stunt.
Silarial repeated the body bend sideways, this time tossing her hair to the right like a tamer cracking her whip. She spun around on tiptoe, springing in small circles as Jiscal’s playing became accentuated with lilting staccatos. While dancing around the small clearing like a carefree child, Silarial slowly raised an arm above her head and stretched the other towards the crowd. Her eyes crinkled into a smile and her hand gestured to them enticingly, as if the girl was asking them to join her happy little dance. She moved her fingers as if to caress the air, and her feet moved deftly in a playful cadence.
After a few more heartbeats, the song slowed down to an almost tantalizing whisper. Silarial gamboled with measured steps towards the audience and bent forward as if to stroke the ground endearingly. Dainty hands traveled up her frilly skirt, up to her sides, and finally above her head as she gradually unfurled her body. She twirled her hand, long fingers moving teasingly while she subtly swayed her hips to the lingering rhythm. She let her hands travel down her sides, and up again before finally grabbing the hem of her skirt with both hands. The dancer lifted the garment overhead like a butterfly raising its flowery wings for everyone to see. Jiscal’s playing regained pace, and Silarial clunked her heels on the floor to match the increasing beat, one foot in front of the other as she waved her hands around, tossing her flower-patterned red skirt about. It created a wonderful illusion of colors, if not a bit lacking in grace. However, this was Silarial’s dance, and Silarial was an honest dancer. What she lacked in grace, she definitely made up with passion and emotion.
The barmaids cheered for the pair for giving a good performance so far. It made the dancer grin in delight, showing a set of perfectly white teeth. It was not the case for poor Jiscal, however. The woman panicked at the sudden surge of attention, her face flushed and her hands shook, making her playing sound rushed and a bit dissonant. Silarial found herself chasing after the woman’s hastened tempo with some difficulty. If she doesn’t do something soon, both of them will end up messing the show real bad.
The dancer was forced to improvise mid-dance. She artfully moved her head towards the nervous lutenist’s general direction. Her hands alternated to her front and back, manipulating her skirt to form incessantly flowing waves of red. After finally getting a good look at the woman, she noticed that Jiscal looked so tense and nervous. Silarial wondered if she should stop the dance instead. However, doing so would be very unprofessional, and she’s worried that Jiscal might blame herself for the incident. Huzak would most probably be disappointed too. Silarial sighed inwardly, eyes turning a worried midnight blue yet she still did her best to keep the smile on her face. The show must go on, and to keep it going, she needed to think fast. How in Rhaus’ name should she do this?
She tap danced to where the nervous musician was sitting, skirt-swishing across the clearing to keep everyone’s attention focused on her instead of Jiscal. When she was close enough, she twirled once and knelt on the floor, her back towards the spectators. Moving her head left and right to brandish her long hair while snaking her hands above her head, she called out to Jiscal in a voice barely above a whisper to no avail. Seeing as this did not attract the other Vantha’s attention, Silarial drummed loudly on the floor in a half-circle in front of her, joining her makeshift music with the lutenist’s before throwing her skirt close to the poor woman’s face. Jiscal looked up at her in surprise, her hands still nervously plucking at her instrument. Silarial smiled encouragingly and mouthed
“it’s okay, relax” and
“breathe” to Jiscal while inconspicuously miming out the words as if it were part of the dance itself.
It seemed to work. A red-faced Jiscal calmed down considerably, and soon her playing returned to its proper pace. Silarial shook her hips as she gradually stood up. Oh thank goodness. Any more of that and she would have no more energy left to finish the dance. And there’s only about a chime left before its conclusion too. She better give it her all to leave a good impression for the both of them.
With renewed vigor, Silarial cavorted to the other side of the small clearing and threw one side of the skirt behind her in a spinning jump. She immediately followed that with a quick twirl and then a turning forward bend. Her hair and skirt swayed with her every rotation, and her movements were almost mad with exuberance. Silarial was already catching her breath but she continued the dance as if her life depended on it. The music was at its climax. She whirled around and around in a seemingly endless loop, her skirt floating around her like a lovely crimson flower. At Jiscal’s very last note, the young woman tossed her arms in the air, as if the cause of her joy was finally within reach. Relief washed over her when she realized the dance was finally over. They finished the performance! She seriously thought everything would fall apart halfway through the show.
Silarial walked towards Jiscal, fighting the urge to just plop down on the floor like a doormat. The woman’s face was rueful and it saddened her to see Jiscal like this.
“I-I’m sorry I…” Jiscal started, but Silarial shook her head. She wanted to let the shy musician know that it’s not her fault so she squeezed Jiscal’s hand reassuringly and smiled.
“Hush my friend, don’t worry too much about it. Everything’s part of the learning experience after all.”Her face was flushed and her chest rose and fell with exertion. She felt beads of sweat trickle down the side of her face. Silarial now realized how naive she was when she thought improvisations were not much needed in this dance. Almost half of what she did were ad-libbed! And that was her first performance at the Red Diamond too. She could only hope she pleased her boss and co-workers very well despite their minor slip up at the middle.
OOCI'm so sorry for such a TL;DR post... >n<;;
